Are Google’s Aims Going To Be Derailed By Social Networking?

Search engine giants Google are constantly looking for new ways in which they can alter the way that they rank websites in the mission to prove their users with the best possible search engine results but in the aftermath of the recent ‘Penguin' and ‘Panda' double roll out, Google have told the online world that they should be building quality content rather than links in order to rank well within the SERPs.

Although this is nothing new when it comes to Google looking to pass out a generic hint of how website owners should be looking to increase their backlink profile in order to increase their ranking abilities, the message seems to be already looking likely to run into issues as the world of online natural linkage continues to die a death thanks to the online social networking mentality that millions of web users have now adapted into.

The reason that I believe that the new "Make content not links" call from Google is set to fail is that natural linking seems to be on the slippery downslope known as being ‘outdated' and instead social network sharing is becoming a much greater method of showing your interest in web content, sharing it on Twitter or posting the link onto Facebook for your friends to see.

I know that there is still a small number of people that are still picking up links through natural methods and that means that it is not impossible even to this day, but the fact that more people are interested in throwing the content out through the social avenues than spending the time writing about it on their own sites seems to show that excessive planning needs to be made when thinking up the content that you intend to place on your site, such as the angle of which you are going to take and the target market that you will be looking appeal to in order to bypass the webmasters that are simply going to socialise rather than publicise.

Now that I have put my point across to you and I know that many of you are calling for it, I have done a little research into some popular posts on either this blog or one that is a well trafficked industry leader in their field and it seems to show my point brilliantly, so let's have a look at what I found:

So what does this data show us?

Well the contrast between the two sites is that DavidNaylor.co.uk has a tiny amount of traffic when compared to the power of Mashable.com, meaning that based on Google's mentality, Mashable should have been able to generate a higher volume of links in comparison to the EU Cookie Law post which was published on Dave's blog but as we can see, that is not the case.

The post on DavidNaylor.co.uk generated 314 followed backlinks naturally with 62 further no follow backlinks but the Mashable post which reached a much wider audience generated 125 followed verses 12 no follow backlinks.

Okay so maybe the post wasn't of as much interest to the Mashable readers? Well looking at the social stats that we have been able to gather, that post was shared socially 5548 times, over twice as much as the DavidNaylor.co.uk blogpost, so clearly it was of more interest to the Mashable readers.

A further comparison of the why that the Mashable post was shared shows that 5,411 people who liked the post were more interested in simply sharing it at the click of a button than they were to write a blogpost to place the link into on their own site.

What am I trying to say with this post?

Well first let me point out that I nor anyone associated with DavidNaylor.co.uk have never purchased a single backlink for the site, nor do we suggest, condone or recommend that you do so for your own site either, but the grim reality is that this shows that the logic in which Google are clearly trying to show to website owners as the way to increase their visibility within their search engine is flawed thanks to the further development and popularity of social networking, a one button touch method to share anything of interest with friends and family.

This will result in the online search engine optimisation fight against blackhat methods continuing as website owners look to increase their positional status within the search engines in a bid to increase visibility and hopefully profits, so for all of the straight down the line sites just like this one will continue to need to think ‘outside of the box' if they are going to be able to compete.

* – Figures are used as potential indicators and are not 100% correct as based on numbers that contain sitewide, rss feed and other linkage.

What do you think? Do you agree with my thought that Google are taking webmasters towards an era where social networking could be a problem or do you believe that if the content is worth the time and effort of a reader, you will still get links like Google claim? Share your comments here or tweet me on @AlexGravesSEO

Alex Graves

Developing his SEO knowledge based on a 'quality over quantity' thesis, Alex believes that careful research and link acquisition is vital when working on projects, ensuring that each and every step taken is a positive one.

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7 Comments

Becky - http://www.beckynaylor.co.uk

Totally agree with you, not that I’m biased or anything. I have thought for a long time now that its a bit disappointing that when you write a blog post that has probably taken quite a bit of thought, and time to write it that its so short lived these days. Take the post that I recently did on Spoilt Adult Syndrome … I think that rang true with many people in the industry but I didn’t get a comment on my blog (which kind of makes my blog look like its unread and useless), but I did get Tweets and Likes and had various conversations back and forth on the social platforms about it.

When Google say “write good content and people will link to you” I think they have forgotten that we are not 3 or 4 years back, when people would have their own well kept blogs, with great content on, that would have their own readership and subscribers, and would republish and repurpose content well, linking back to the original source.
This rarely happens now, as the url is pushed via social media, mainly by a url shortener and discussed on Facebook and Twitter, with no links being passed.

The example you used from Dave’s site for the Cookie Law was a good one, great linkage gained .. but it would be interesting to see what the other general blog articles get in terms of incoming links, comparing it to tweets and Likes. I wonder how many Links the Cookie post would have got a few years ago 🙂

Chedie - http://chibilicious.com

Although living busy lives, most take time to read and share articles relating to interests via social media channels. It is now a way of living. As I see it, regardless of how extensive SEO practices are done, nothing can encompass natural linking via how many people find your post or article interesting.

Pete Potter - http://www.bestbingowebsites.co.uk/

We feel the exact same Becky. We can write article after article and rarely get a comment back from people, however place the link or similar comment on the social sites and the engagment can be instant.

What makes the social sites so attractive is that once someone subscribes/follows/likes you – you can continue to push relevant content to them. Where as with the search engines you have to be lucky to be ranked in a top position, you need to maintain it and you have no idea if/when or for what reason Google may decide to drop your ranking.

Since the Penguin update we have dropped quite a bit of traffic and we have no idea if it will return or what to do to help get it back. I feel more comfortable with social sites as I believe it is far easier to stimulate followers again.

nanang riyanto - http://mondarmandironline.blogspot.com

Then I noticed from the above data, content strength of a blog can affect how google assessing a site. Along with a trip to find strategies to get links without trying to improve the content, often used in ways that are not uncommon. Thus making the links that can be obtained by a sharp rise. However, keep in mind that, google has the authority to a site that was in the top positions of search engines. So, the more easy it is to generate the links in a short time in ways that are not natural, then the developers of google search engine will certainly find a way to fix this search engine.

Pablo - http://earningmoneyonline.co.uk

Isnt the problem with social the lack of individual authority? I mean one of the few good things about links is that some are worth more than others, this means you can filter out some of the volume and try to focus on the good ones. But all social recommendations are the same, they cant “really” tell if one is more important than the other since profiles dont rate/link to either other. I dont see links going anywhere soon. P

george - http://www.alloageorge.com/blog

My blog has rarely had backlinks and yet many items
that i have published show up on google.co.uk
e.g i wrote a small piece on Camden bank holiday
parking rules in January and its still on page one of
google.Doing a search on “central london loading”
shows up two pieces in the top 10.
one from 2009. personally i think its always been
about relevance rather than backlinks.

Kevin Gabbard - http://seolivonia.com/

I personally agree that social media is more of a driving force than building backlinks. With that said though, the more quality content you put out the better chance you have for gaining momentum in either backlinks or social media. So, wouldn’t that still mean by putting out good content, you will build your SEO ?

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